MEMORY NOTCH BLOG

Voice memo transcription with speaker labels

Voice Memos transcribes on iPhone, iPad and Mac free, but Apple's guides never mention who said what. How to get Speaker 1, Speaker 2 labels instead.

Published November 6, 2026 · By Cho Yin Yong

Apple's Voice Memos app already transcribes recordings on iPhone, iPad and Mac, for free, while you record or afterwards. What it doesn't offer is voice memo transcription with speaker labels. Apple's guides cover viewing, copying and searching the text, and none mentions telling speakers apart. For a transcript that marks who spoke, you need a second app that tells voices apart, which is called speaker diarization.

Free and built in: works on iPhone 12 or later, in ten languages, where Apple offers it.
What you can do with it: watch it live, copy it, and search every memo by its words.
What's missing: speaker labels, and a setting for the transcription language.
For speaker labels: record with an app that numbers voices. Ours, Memory Notch, does it on the phone, tablet or computer itself.
Old memos: our desktop app can import your existing memos and re-transcribe one with speaker labels.

Checked November 6, 2026, against Apple's current guides.

How do you transcribe a voice memo on iPhone?

You don't have to do anything: Voice Memos writes the transcript itself. According to Apple's iPhone guide, it works on iPhone 12 or later in the ten languages below. It isn't available in every country or region.

Apple's transcription languages
European	English (all variants), Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German
Asian	Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese

To read the words while you record:

Open the app (it lives in the Utilities folder) and tap the record button.
Swipe up from the top of the waveform, then tap the transcription button.
The text replaces the waveform, with the current word highlighted. Tap the same button to go back.

To read or copy the transcript after recording:

Tap the recording, then tap the more button (three dots).
Choose View Transcript to read it and copy part of it, or Copy Transcript for the whole thing.
Paste it into a note, an email or any text file.

To search, tap the search button above the list and type a word. The list keeps only the memos with that word in the title or the transcript. Tap a word inside a transcript and the playhead jumps to that moment in the audio.

Older memos get transcribed too. Apple's guide says that when you open one made on iOS 17 or earlier, and it contains speech, the app transcribes it automatically. On a tablet the steps are nearly identical; the iPad guide has them.

How to transcribe voice memos on a Mac

On a Mac, Voice Memos transcribes the same way: click the transcription button while recording, or open a recording and click it afterwards. To copy, Apple's guide says to select the text and Control-click it. The search field finds words in titles and transcripts, as on the phone.

Two details matter here:

It needs Apple silicon. The guide's macOS Sequoia version says transcription needs a Mac with an Apple chip.
Your phone's memos are already there. With iCloud, recordings appear on every device signed in to the same Apple account. Apple's sync page shows where to switch this on.

So you can record on your phone and read, copy or search the transcript on your computer, with nothing to install.

Does Voice Memos tell speakers apart?

Not according to Apple's own guides. The phone, tablet and computer pages each describe watching, copying and searching a transcript, and none mentions speakers, speaker labels or who said what. For a voice note to yourself, that's fine. For a meeting, an interview or a lecture with questions, you get the words but not whose they are.

The job of splitting a recording by voice is called speaker diarization. It works out where one voice stops and the next starts, then gives each voice a number. Our explainer on diarization covers how it works and where it slips.

Two things to know before you go looking for an app:

Labels are numbers, not names. Apps that diarize give you "Speaker 1" and "Speaker 2". Turning those into names is still your job. What speaker diarization is, and where it fails explains why.
Talking over each other breaks it. No app separates overlapping voices well, so a heated meeting comes out messier than an interview.

How to change the voice memo transcription language

Apple doesn't document a setting for the transcription language. Its guides list the ten supported languages and stop there. In September 2024, someone asked on Apple's community forum where the button to select the transcription language was. The question collected 564 "me too" votes and no answer before it was closed.

What people try:

Change the phone's language and region. A Portuguese speaker on the same forum asks for a way to avoid exactly that, which suggests the transcript follows those settings. It changes the language of the whole phone, though.
Change the app's own language. One forum member suggested Settings > Apps > Voice Memos > Language. Nobody in that thread reported whether it changed the transcript.

If you record in a language outside those ten, no setting fixes that; you'll need a different app. Our desktop app has no language setting either, because it doesn't need one. Its speech model detects the language for each chunk of audio, and the model's card lists 40 language-locales.

Getting a transcript with Speaker 1 / Speaker 2

To get a voice memo transcript with speaker labels, record with an app that labels voices as it transcribes. Memory Notch, our app, does that on phone, tablet and computer. It writes a live transcript and numbers each voice as people talk. Recording, transcription and speaker labels all run on the device, offline, with no account.

On iPhone and iPad

The iPhone and iPad app is on the App Store and needs iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 or later. You can start a recording by asking Siri, and the phone's lock screen shows the timer and the latest line. Each recording is saved as audio plus a text note you can open in the Files app. Tap any line of the transcript to hear that moment.

The phone app records the room. Apple doesn't let apps on iPhone or iPad record phone calls or other apps' audio, so use it for meetings in person or on speaker. For setting up a table, see how to record and transcribe an in-person meeting.

On a Mac

The desktop app records your microphone and the computer's own audio together, so a video call captures both sides. That second source needs the macOS screen-recording permission. Each recording becomes a folder of plain files in ~/memory: the audio, a transcript and a Markdown note.

Memos you've already recorded

The desktop app can bring in the memos you already have. Its library has an import button for them, and the features page explains that macOS may ask you to grant full disk access first. An imported memo keeps Apple's transcript if it has one. To add speaker labels, open the memo and choose the enhanced transcript option. It re-transcribes the saved audio on the computer and numbers the voices when it hears more than one. It asks before replacing the existing transcript.

Because iCloud syncs your phone's memos to your computer, this covers memos you recorded on the phone too. Importing is a desktop feature; the phone app labels speakers in the recordings you make with it.

	Apple Voice Memos	Memory Notch
Price	Free, built in	Free recordings up to five minutes; iPhone US$5.99 once; Mac US$79 once or US$7.99 a month
Speaker labels	Not mentioned in Apple's guides	Speaker 1, Speaker 2, numbered, not named
Live transcript	Yes	Yes
Languages	Ten, with no setting in the app	Multilingual; detected as it goes
Search	Titles and transcripts	Titles and metadata only
Records other apps' audio	No	Mac only, with Screen Recording permission
Summaries	With Apple Intelligence's Writing Tools	None built in

Checked November 6, 2026. Prices are in American dollars; the App Store shows your country's price.

Where each one falls short

Apple's app does several things ours doesn't. It's already on your phone, it costs nothing, and it searches inside every transcript. Our library search covers titles and metadata, not every spoken word. With Apple Intelligence turned on, Apple's app can summarize a transcript; ours writes no summaries. If you want one, open the note with an AI tool you choose, and the AI tools guide covers how.

What our app doesn't do:

It doesn't know anyone's name. Labels are numbers, and they can be wrong when voices are similar or overlap.
The phone app can't record phone calls or other apps.
It can't import existing memos on the phone or tablet. That's the desktop app's job.
Free recordings stop at five minutes and save everything captured. On the phone, your first two longer recordings run to the end. After that, a one-time $5.99 in-app purchase removes the limit, with no subscription. It's bought separately from the desktop licence.

We haven't measured either app's accuracy against the other. Try both on a recording you care about and read the results side by side.

Whichever app you use, a transcript made on your own device still needs the agreement of the people in it. Processing on the device limits where the recording can go. It doesn't replace their consent. If you're recording people for research, our guide to transcribing interviews covers consent in more depth.

On a Mac, you can try the five-minute trial with no account. The full licence is $79 once, for up to five of your own Macs with a year of updates and a 30-day refund, or $7.99 a month, cancel anytime. The privacy policy lists the few network requests that app makes, none of which carries a recording.

Frequently asked questions

Can Voice Memos transcribe with speaker labels?

Apple's guides for phone, tablet and computer describe live transcripts, copying and search, and none of them mentions speaker labels or telling voices apart. To get numbered speakers in a transcript, record with an app that does speaker diarization, or import the memo into one.

Is voice memo transcription free?

Yes. Transcription is built into the app at no cost on iPhone 12 or later, on supported iPad models, and on Macs with an Apple chip. It covers ten languages, including English, Spanish, French and Japanese, and Apple says it isn't available in every country or region.

Why is there no transcript on my voice memo?

Apple lists three conditions: a supported device, a supported language, and a supported country or region. If any of them is missing, no transcript appears. Speech in a language outside Apple's ten won't be transcribed, and Apple's guides offer no setting to choose the language.

Can I transcribe old voice memos with speaker labels?

On a Mac, yes. Our desktop app imports your memos, including the ones iCloud syncs from your phone. Choose the enhanced transcript option on a memo to re-transcribe it on the computer with numbered speaker labels. Importing may need full disk access, and the phone app doesn't import memos.

Does Memory Notch upload my voice memos?

No. Recording, transcription and speaker labels run on your phone, tablet or computer. The phone app makes no network requests of its own; purchases go through the App Store. The desktop app makes three requests, for licence and update checks, and none of them carries a recording.

Sources

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